Sport playing fields have conventionally been covered with natural grass or more recently with synthetic grass surfaces to replace natural grass, since natural grass does not stand up well to constant wear and requires a great deal of maintenance.
For games played on natural grass, there is a need to mark out the perimeters of the play area and various boundaries of the game to be played. For example, football and soccer playing surfaces have conventionally been marked with rope, paint, ribbons or powdered chalk. The natural grass of course grows constantly and is subjected to rain and wind. Replacing the lines of paint and chalk on natural grass fields is necessary especially in professional sport and involves high labour and material costs. The placement of powdered chalk and paint is also dependent upon weather and wind conditions which tends to increase the labour costs involved.
Paint and chalk often kill the surrounding grass and their use represents an undesirable source of soil and air pollution resulting from repetitive application of paint to the same area.
The alternative of providing a complete synthetic grass sport surface is usually only practical where professional sports are involved due to the high cost of the synthetic grass surface and accompanying maintenance. Natural grass surfaces do not grow well in partially and fully enclosed sports stadiums. Synthetic grass surfaces stand up much better to wear than natural grass surfaces, especially where traffic is heavy.
Providing a permanent line marking on synthetic grass surfaces is relatively simple. The synthetic grass surface is constructed of a fabric backing with tufted synthetic ribbons in a manner similar to the fabrication of a carpet. In order to mark permanent lines in a synthetic grass surface, white coloured ribbons are tufted in selected line patterns or the lines are painted or dyed after fabrication of the synthetic grass surface. In either case, there is a relatively straightforward means to produce permanent line markings in synthetic grass surfaces compared to natural grass surfaces.
The cost of installing large areas of synthetic grass surfaces prohibits the use of this solution for most commonly used outdoor play areas. Parks and schools or university athletic fields often carry more volume of play traffic than a professional sports arena would encounter, and suffer from excessive wear. In addition, the funds required to replace natural grass surfaces are often simply not available.
Natural grass surfaces with repeated paint or chalked lines often cake up and cause ridges that an athlete can trip on and may result in injury or inconsistent play.
The use of chalk lines or paint on natural grass surfaces is essentially a temporary installation since during play, the lines are scuffed by abrasion. The definition of such temporary lines is poor unless repeated maintenance is undertaken to improve the definition for various sports.
An object of a first embodiment of the present invention is to provide a permanent marking system for natural grass turf surfaces in order to reduce the cost and labor involved in maintenance of the lines.
A further object of the first embodiment is to provide superior definition of playing lines on a natural grass turf surface to address the blurring and smearing of chalk or paint lines.
A further object of the first embodiment is to remove the physical obstacles to play and avoid tripping hazards that are present in conventional use of chalk or paint ridges.
A further object of the first embodiment is to avoid the damaging of grass surfaces with paint and to avoid environmental pollution caused by repeated application of paint with solvents and chalk which tends to effect the acidity of the soil adjacent.
An object of the second embodiment is to eliminate the need to trim natural grass strips disposed between adjacent patio stones. A common method of patio installation is to lay patio stones into a natural grass turf with the resulting surface having strips of natural grass disposed between adjacent patio stones. A disadvantage of this design is that the natural grass turf grows laterally over the adjacent patio stones and can substantially cover the stones if not trimmed on a regular basis. Trimming grass about the patio stone edges is time consuming and may expose soil surfaces that encourage weed growth. Controlling lateral overgrowth adds significant labour to the maintenance of such patio surfaces. The grass overgrowth and accompanying weed growth detracts from the aesthetic appeal of combined grass and stone patio surfaces.